Disgrace of Navy commander who 'flashed' at young girls

A Royal Navy commander's career is in ruins after he exposed himself to a string of under-age girls and downloaded hundreds of child porn images, a court has heard.

Former warship captain Craig Gilmour, 38, was tipped to be an admiral after taking a key role in several vital operations.

But he handed in his resignation last month after his secret perversion was revealed.

Gilmour, a married father of three, drove up to girls aged between 11 and 15 in his blue Jaguar on four occasions and exposed himself to them, Portsmouth Crown Court was told.

He invited another girl, who was only ten, to perform a sex act on him, it was claimed.

And he downloaded more than 300 indecent images of children.

on to his home computer. Gilmour, based at HMS Nelson in Portsmouth, admits four counts of indecent exposure and one of possessing indecent images between October 2005 and October last year.

He denies one count of causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity. Before his arrest Gilmour had been commanding officer of the fishery patrol vessel HMS Tyne and sailed the new £20million ship into his home city of Newcastle in 2003.

The court heard that Gilmour 'flashed' at girls aged 11, 13 and two 15-year- olds in the Portsmouth area. On September 26 last year he pulled up alongside the ten-year-old in the Paulsgrove area of the city and asked her for directions as a 'ruse' to engage in sex talk.

In a video interview played to the court the girl, who was wearing a pink hooded top and a white hair band, told how the incident left her 'shaky and nervous'.

She said: "This man said, "Excuse me". I went, "Hello". He said, "Do you know what road this is?" I said, "No".

"He said, "Do you want to ..." and then he got it out. He kept his shorts on but pulled one of the legs up. He got his willy out and I ran off."

Martyn Booth, prosecuting, said the girl alerted her father and police inquiries led them to Gilmour who accepted he was the man in the car.

"The defendant accepted that he had exposed his penis to the girl. He claimed the reason he did that was simply for kicks - that he got a cheap thrill out of doing it."

Gilmour told the court that he blamed the combined pressures of work and family life for his "unacceptable and frankly appalling behaviour".

He said that lengthy tours of duty in the Gulf meant he was unable to spend enough time with his children and this led him to commit a form of 'self harm'. The trial continues.